PROCEEDINGS OF THE CENTENARY MEETING. xxxix 



your Academy is doing here on the banks of the Delaware. The kindling 

 inspiration, the fire on our altar, came from the hearthstone of science here. 

 There is a great field for research before us, as we stand in the gateway of the 

 West, through which Long, and Lewis and Carke, went forth for their journeys 

 of exploration, but the original impulse and the exemplification of what is to be 

 done have come to us through such men as your own Say, Audubon, LeConte, 

 and Leidy. 



But let us forget Pittsburgh for a moment and come back to this institution. 

 Gentlemen, the best library of scientific literature in the departments of zoology 

 and botany in North America is found under this roof We owe a debt to Thomas 

 B. Wilson and the men who have come after him for having assembled here in 

 this library the works of the great scientific investigators in these fields, as they 

 have from time to time appeared. We are attempting in Pittsburgh to build 

 up such a library; but, only the other day, when one of my associates proposed 

 to me to prepare a bibliography of the ichthyology of South America, I was 

 compelled to say to him, "Run over to Philadelphia to the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences and there prepare the manuscript in the form in which it ought to be. 

 It is idle to cite titles at second-hand. The books are in Philadelphia. Go 

 there." He went, and we have secured a bibliography covering the subject, as I 

 trust, in a satisfactory manner. In order to do it we had to send to Philadelphia. 



Gentlemen, science, which is simply ordered knowledge, has had no more 

 efficient handmaiden in this country during the last century than The Academy 

 of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the Centenary of which we are celebrating 

 at this time. I am a member of many of the great societies in Europe, but, as 

 I said a few moments ago in conversation with my friend Dr. Nolan, the Zoo- 

 logical and Linnean Societies of London, the Societe Zoologique de France, and 

 a score of others, which I might name, have none of them done more useful work, 

 nor accomplished better things for the advancement of human knowledge, than 

 this Academy, so admirably presided over to-day by our honored friend, Dr. 

 Dixon. 



As Americans and as Pennsylvanians we are proud of The Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia, we rejoice in the achievements of the one hundred years 

 which have passed, and our wish and hope is that, when another hundred years 

 shall have rolled their course, this institution will stand proudly, wearing even 

 greater honors, and possessed of even more exalted reputation, than now belong 

 to her. 



Dr. Conklin: 



Gentlemen: We are celebrating to-night not merely the Centenary of The 

 Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, but also the Semi-Centenary of 

 Dr. Edward J. Nolan's connection with this Academy. Let us stand and 

 drink to the health of Dr. Nolan. 



I call upon Dr. Nolan "to read the 'rough minutes' of the meeting." 



